The Diablo franchise has a reputation for the riches players can collect, but that includes more than just currency. Players will pick up all kinds of junk, and not all of it is useful for transmog, salvage, or upgrades. Sometimes the best or only option is just to sell it to the next or nearest vendor.
Diablo 4 cranked the level of cool stuff that players can find up to 11, but all change is relative, and so the same amount of useless stuff is also at an all-time high. When it comes time to empty those bags, there are some helpful guidelines when it comes to what is best to keep, what should be upgraded, and what things should always be sold.
7 Anything Without A New Transmog
Let's just prioritize what's important when it comes to gaming, and that's the fine art of transmogrification. Back in the day, players would search high and low for that perfect piece of gear to complete their unique look. Today in Diablo 4, salvaging a piece of gear also means saving that transmog for future use.
Not every item has a transmog effect, however, and that's a disincentive for salvage unless that item will yield rare materials or has a Legendary Aspect that can be extracted and used elsewhere. Gear without a new transmog should always be sold unless it's good enough to equip and sell later.
6 Everything Of Magic Quality In The Early Levels
Players might not sell every single piece, but there's so much of this stuff that salvaging all of it might be a waste, especially if the character needs gold. Players that like to go off the beaten path and explore cellars and mini-dungeons will discover this earlier than others, but either way, most of it is best sold to a vendor.
It's up to the player if they want to salvage as much as they can from this pile of shiny blue stuff. On the other hand, these are lower-level materials that either can't be used later, or have to be refined at higher levels, which the player has to pay a vendor to do. Better just to sell them.
5 Items Unsuited To Character Build
There's such a wide variety of junk that players have to sift through in Diablo 4. Sometimes they'll pick up a high-level item that's useable by their class, with some decent buffs, but it just doesn't fit the unique Skill Tree build.
The price of Legendary and Rare items tends to be higher than others, and they can be sold at a better price than the salvage is worth. An item of this quality would be ideal to sell to a vendor provided there's no transmog, rare materials, or Aspect to salvage.
4 Any Gear The Character Can't Equip
The Diablo franchise has always kept it simple when it comes to armor and weapon proficiencies, and Diablo 4 stays with this tradition. There are a few items that are only for specific classes, but there are some at higher levels.
However, there are still a few times when players will find something nice for another class. The materials from these items but be useful, but there won't be a transmog available, and that makes it a great sell item.
3 Whatever, Just Need Bag Space
Most of the time, the motive for selling items to a vendor is the simplest and oldest one of all. The character's inventory is full and any NPC that could salvage or upgrade gear instead isn't located nearby.
Diablo 4 gives players so little inventory space that sometimes everything is ideal for the vendor as a point of necessity. There are small towns in the wilderness where blacksmiths and jewelers aren't available, so everything goes to the nearest vendor just for the bag space.
2 Stuff From The Obol Vendor
By the time the character has enough Obols to make a trip to this vendor worth it, they already have better gear than what they're selling. Depending on where the vendor is located, the items are usually never above Rare quality and are fairly generic when it comes to bonuses and buffs.
One way to make Obols less useless as a currency is to launder them into gold. Buy stuff from the Mysterius Items vendor, and then sell them to the regular armor vendor. Another option would be to salvage them in case certain materials are required for an upgrade.
1 Anything Worth More Than 100,000 Gold
Look at all those zeroes! In a game that costs as much as the character makes, it's tempting to get that money in the bank and get as many of those early upgrades as possible. Of course, this isn't a strict rule, especially if the item in particular fits the character's unique build or style.
This is another possibility where salvaging might be a better option than selling. An item of this value would have to be at least of Legendary quality, and they are made of materials that are equally rare and valuable. Unless the character has an immediate need of something specific, however, it's better just to sell it to a vendor and not worry about repair bills for a day or two.